Legislators Pushing To Cut Schools` 7th Period

TALLAHASSEE — A growing number of legislators are pushing to repeal a mandatory seventh period for Florida high schools -- a move some say might release up to $100 million for teacher pay increases.

The plan has leadership support in both chambers, but it`s an idea Gov. Bob Graham doesn`t relish.

``I believe we ought to have a longer school day, or a longer period of student education, which the seventh period provides,`` Graham said Monday morning. ``If I were at the local level, I would use those hours in a more creative way than is typically done today. But the idea of cutting $100 million, that means you will cut by 15 percent the time available for students to be educated, and I wouldn`t favor that.``

A House Education subcommittee plans to take the first step in arranging the demise of a mandated longer school day while considering some revisions to a massive education package adopted last year. The proposed committee bill, expected to be put to a vote within the next week, would make an extended day optional.

Currently, the state mandate for seventh period becomes effective July 1, whether or not the state agrees to fund it. When lawmakers adopted the program last year, they set aside $67 million to pay for the first year`s costs of those districts which implemented it ahead of time. Full funding of the program has been estimated at between $100 million and $120 million during the budget year beginning July 1.

While some legislators want to eliminate the seventh period completely, House Education Chairman Tommy Hazouri, D-Jacksonville, would rather let the school districts decide. ``I think the mandated seventh period is in trouble. We may repeal the mandate and keep it an option. All but a few schools (already) have some form of the extended day.``

Of the state`s 67 school districts, 50 implemented the seventh period this school year while 13 elected to have a combination of six 60-minute periods and seven 50-minute periods. One district chose only six 60-minute periods and three school districts did not offer their students an extended day.

In Broward County, where the seventh period has become a fixture, School Board member Lori Parrish thinks it should be optional. She said a mandatory seventh period could better be used by middle-school students in the so-called ``exploratory years.``

Toni Siskin, School Board chairperson, said she fears the state will never agree to fully fund the seventh period if it becomes optional. This year, the state paid about two-thirds of the cost of the seventh period in Broward schools.

Meanwhile, Palm Beach County School Superintendent Tom Mills said that repealing the seven-period day would be a mistake as long as the state requires 24 credits for graduation. The county adopted the seven-period school day last year.

``If you`re going to require 24 credits . . . , you have to have seven periods,`` Mills said. ``Otherwise it`s not fair to the students. With six periods, if they fail one course, they can`t graduate.``

House Speaker James Harold Thompson, D-Quincy, says state money earmarked for the seventh period could be better spent elsewhere. ``We`d like to retrieve that money and use it in other programs. (The seventh period) calls for investing $100 million annually. And the House never felt that was a good investment.``

Although the House never supported making high school students spend an extra hour in class each day, the program finally was agreed to toward the end of the 1984 session as a trade for Senate support of a merit-pay plan for public school teachers. Although the impetus for the longer school day came from the Senate under the leadership of former president Curtis Peterson, that chamber`s current hierarchy now is willing to re-examine the issue.

However, the Senate`s new leader, Harry Johnston, D-West Palm Beach, stopped short of saying what he expects to result from that examination. ``A majority of the Senate wants to look at the seventh period. But I don`t know whether it will be repealed.``

If the seventh period issue is left up to individual school districts, Hazouri said the state could save between $40 million and $50 million -- savings he said would be directed toward increasing teacher salaries.